The 11th annual Toronto Group Conference will ask how international, transnational and comparative law interact: Can or should their distinction be maintained? And, if so, are they conflictual or aligned? In posing these questions, we aim to understand how the relations between legal categories can assist in understanding the distribution of rights and responsibilities among actors in global society, including their evolving self-perception, narratives and strategies.

With the continuing turn in legal scholarship toward examining pluralism, informality and hybrid forms of governance and lawmaking, the conference will provide an opportunity for scholars to consider a range of topics on broad themes such as transnational actors operating in international law, comparative approaches to international and transnational law, and the impacts of such legal categories on state and non-state actors, among others. We encourage all proposals relevant to these broad themes from theoretical and practical perspectives, including proposals taking an interdisciplinary approach.

Submission of Paper Proposals:

The Toronto Group Conference brings together graduate students and emerging scholars from across the globe. The Organizing Committee welcomes papers on subject matter in international, transnational and comparative law that address the theme above. Interested individuals should send an abstract of about 300 words and a short bio of about 100 words by November 5, 2017. Proposals will be evaluated based on their relevance to the theme, the interest they present in relation to other proposals, and their overall quality (both substantive and formal). Applicants will be notified of results toward the end of November, 2017. Selected applicants are expected to submit completed papers in early February, 2018.

This conference aims at creating a space where early career scholars can receive feedback on their research, so each applicant selected to present will be assigned a faculty member discussant.

Meals at the venue during the event will be provided, but budget constraints prevent us from offering travel assistance to the participants.